Amidst All The Mayhem, Don’t Forget To Create Lovely Memories, Says This Mom

Having been stuck in a non-stop maze around our children's school, classes, planning the meal for school lunches and healthy snacks, dropping them off and picking them back from the school bus stop and the inevitable daily routine, I am often astounded as to how quickly time is just slipping by. With each passing day, I’m always craving for more minutes in a day, to take a breather or even just to enjoy the moment fully. I’m craving to spend quality time with my kids while I’m so bogged down with the day-to-day chores.

So, the other day, instead of just complaining about it, I decided to do something. I decided to make every moment count. Yes, surely easier said than done. But how do you make each moment count when you’re always worrying about what’s to come next and what needs to be done at this very second without fully living the moment in its entirety?

I decided to take it one step at a time – I decided to make memories with my kids – ones that might seem small, but hopefully will create lasting impressions in their hearts and minds. Hopefully one day they will look back upon these memories or little traditions fondly as something they used to do with their mommy.

You can take any small activity that you think you’ll enjoy as a group. For us, it’s usually something around art. I decided to merge art with festivals and celebrations and then that would become something that my kids and I would enjoy doing together. This year, for Valentine’s Day we made small handmade Valentines that kids could give out to their classmates. This is something that I’ve been doing with my daughter (now 8) since she was 2 years old and this year my son, who’s now 3, joined us as well. Every year, my daughter remembers that we make these handmade Valentines at home and gets so excited about doing it each year together with me. The 3 of us spent about 30-45 minutes doing the whole activity together, but hopefully made a memory for a lifetime. It might just seem like an ordinary craft, but for me, it was giving them 45 minutes of my uninterrupted time and attention, doing something that I love to do. And, for them, it was all about the fun of doing something together.

I want my kids to grow up with memories of the special times they’ve shared with their mommy and the special moments we created together. I want them to grow up and think fondly of all the little things we used to do together. So I decided to start small – maybe something around festivals and celebrations and give it a little more of our personal touch and a bit of our story to it. I like making these small traditions as a family. Something that we can look forward and enjoy doing together every year as a family.

So I encourage all you mommies to make up some traditions with your little ones. Start small, start something simple. After all, the best part about memories is making them. We all know that they will grow up very quickly and we'll be left wondering, "Where did all the time go"?!